Blue

© Williamsburg Oil Colors

It's a favorite color. But their are so many varieties. When I was in high school I knew I needed a blue, red, and a yellow to paint. So I went out and bought some colors that looked interesting. I picked a cobalt blue hue (a mixture of ultramarine, phthalocyanine and white) and a naphthol red. I couldn't understand why my violets were muddy and flat. Fortunately since then I've figured out that red and blue don't make purple.

The optical properties of pigment necessitate that artists seeking to mimic the effects of light pick at least two of each primary, each tinted toward it's analogous hues. For instance, a purplish and a greenish blue would allow for a greater variety of mixtures than would a single primary blue.

The cost structure of blue paint has changed greatly over the years. For the medieval painter the best blues Ultramarine and Azurite were prohibitively expensive. Both are ground from semiprecious stones. The name of the former suggests it's origin: Ultra - Marine. Better yet, in French: Outre - Mer. Beyond the sea. The Frankish kingdom in Jerusalem. The spice trade brought this most exquisite of blues to Europe. It was the chemists Guimet and Gmelin who devised a means of synthesizing ultramarine from base materials. If ever there was an instance of an alchemical lead-into-gold procedure, this was one. The modern process brought ultramarine blue into reach for the common artist.

I'm using very little ultramarine these days. I primarily rely on Cerulean and Prussian blues. Cerulean is a stunning color. A weak tinter--especially the paint made by lower calibre color makers--but the only commonly available high key blue. Manganese was thought to be a good replacement, but it's toxicity has caused it to be rare these days.

Prussian Blue was invented by possibly the worst (or luckiest) alchemist in Berlin. Johann Jacob Diesbach was trying to synthesize a red pigment. But when a solution of ferric(iron)-chloride (red-orange in color) and a solution of potassium ferrocyanide (yellow-green in color) are mixed, the result is a bluish liquid, out of which will precipitate a blue pigment.